04 June 2009

"Glitter and Pride parades in all honour, but in the end it comes down to the right to love, do the dishes, pay the bills and live happily with whoever you want to."

Nettan Kock is a 29yearold from Mora, Sweden. She now lives in Uppsala, Sweden, where she is working towards becoming a full time photographer. Right now her work is shown in connection to the Pride festival in Uppsala. Nettan has presented us with an interview made for that particular exhbition:

Q: What’s the name of your project?

A: I’ve named my project UTE (“Ute” is the Swedish word for “outdoors”, but it is also a term for a person who has come out as gay) meaning that the persons in the pictures are openly non-heterosexual as well as they are portrayed outdoors.

Q: How would you describe your art?

A: As most artists, I want to capture a feeling and make people stop and think when they see my pictures. I want to do it in a good looking, thought through and well-worked way that can appeal to a broad audience. I have little over for the kind of pretentious art that works in the lines of “four red dots on a blue backdrop”.

Q: You portray every-day people in every-day situations. How do you come across these people?

A: Many of my own friends have helped out and participated as models in this project, but also their friends and friends of friends etc.

Q: If you had to label your art (like queer art, gay art, or hbtq-art) how would you label it and why?

A: In general, I shoot a lot of different things, but I think this particular project could be described as every-day-homo-art. I want to remind people that a gay person can be your neighbor, your classmate, your mailman, your nurse, your mom’s best friend or your son.

I’ve noticed that people who are prejudiced normally drop their attitudes towards gay people if they actually come in contact with someone who is homosexual. “Bonde-Peter” from the Swedish TV show “Bonde söker fru”, or the movie “Patrik, 1,5” are good examples where gay characters have reached out to the masses. It feels like a step in the right direction. Glitter and Pride parades in all honour, but in the end it comes down to the right to love, do the dishes, pay the bills and live happily with whoever you want to.

Q: Would you say that your photographs have aesthetical value as well as political meaning?

A: I see them as both something beautiful that you can hang on your wall, and as a political statement in the struggle for a gay-friendly society. Differing lifestyles will always be seen more or less as provocative, so I guess my art becomes political whether I want it or not.